Page 159 of Cruel Tides

The sound of their lewd whispers was like a physical force pushing against me from all sides. Everywhere I looked, more pale chests and mounds of tentacles.

A true den of depravity.

And at its center was Queen Sagari, her thick frame hugged by the lifeless branches of coralline that made up her nest-like throne. Her head tilted back against the brittle mesh, her dark lips parting and closing with each salty inhale and exhale.

Very much asleep.

And although their queen lay idle, the men of her court slithered, twisting and weaving over the rocks surrounding her. Despite them maintaining their distance, tension built inside me as we drew closer to the throne.

The queen looked different underwater. Older, perhaps. Her hair floated like tattered rags above her head, and her crown sat on the arm of her throne, one tentacle wrapped securely around it. It must have taken scissors the size of hedge clippers to cut it free from her hair.

That’s when I noticed what else was beside her—a grand relic framed in barnacle-encrusted bronze. A dark tapestry of semi-translucent kelp draped over the sizable oval, obscuring what was underneath.

Immediately, I recognized it for what it was. A standing mirror. Gram had one similar, although hers was more modern and barnacle-free.

I shot the sea wizard a glare, but he remained expressionless, his puppet-like mask already perfectly in place. Naturally.

Now that we were in his queen’s presence, it seemed he wouldn’t be of any more help.

“Queen Sagari.” As soon as the name left my lips, a hush fell over the throne room.

She didn’t rouse.

“Queen Sagari.”

“Huh-uh?” She sat up with a snort, her thick fingers fumbling for her crown before her eyes had even opened.

I didn’t give her a chance to fully wake before I continued. “I believe you wanted to make a deal with me,” I said, my shell digging into my ribs as I folded my arms over my chest. “Only, now that I’ve seen the manner in which you’ve decorated yourpalace, I wonder why you bothered bringing me here at all.”

Surely, if the destruction of the merfolk was what the cecaelia desired, they could have easily done away with me on land. I wasn’t even one of thegoodmermaids. I couldn’t swim, couldn’t use magic. Apart from the guys, no other mer would miss me, so why bother with these games?

As soon as the queen’s eyes focused on me, her dark lips curved into a sleepy smile. “Dear child.” She slunk forward, water rippling as she came out of her throne. “I’ve been eagerly awaiting your arrival. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep,” she trilled, disregarding every word I’d said. “Come, come. I simplymusthave you take a look in my mirror.”

She beckoned me closer, but even if I could swim, I wouldn’t have followed.

My lips were so tight they almost hurt as I glared up at the sea wizard. “Might happen to show me her mirror,my ass,” I forced through bared teeth.

Looking into this mirror was the whole reason I was down here, it seemed. But what some barnacle-infested mirror had to do with anything, I had no clue.

Oh, now I waspissed?—

“Hands off, puppet,” the queen spat, and the sea wizard’s arms came off me without hesitation. I sunk like an anchor, catching myself with my elbows on the rocks as my tail fell limply beside me, useless as ever.

“My, my—” The queen tutted, her tentacles spinning with her approach. “Poor little thing. So small, so frail.”

“As per my report,” the sea wizard began in a bitter voice. “She is unable to swim.”

After her immediate revulsion at the sea wizard’s outburst, the queen’s hands flew to her mouth. The gasp that followed was nothing less than theatrical. “My dear child… I cannot possibly imagine how you survived so long in such a pitiful state.”

Pitiful?Shame flooded me, my heart pounding as if it might jump out of my chest.

The queen floated overhead, circling around me, each judgmental tut hitting like another blow. “Well, child, you do not expectmeto carry you to my mirror, do you? Can you not crawl?”

My fist clenched tightly around my shell, anger seething inside me. I was acutely aware of the cecaelian men’s mocking whispers.

If this was really what I’d been lured down here for—to be mocked and humiliated—I had no doubt my shell would slice right through the queen if she dared drift close.

“I’ll take her to the mirror.” With a sudden movement, the sea wizard’s tentacles flattened, bringing him down to the rocks beside me. In awe, I watched as his body contorted into a perfect bow he directed at his queen. “If you’ll permit it.”

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